With the news that Mark McInnes has stepped down as CEO of David Jones due to ‘inappropriate behaviour’ with a female employee, it seems that everyone it treating him like he’s dead.

No one ever says anything nasty about you after you’re gone. And many people have been quick to defend his Mark’s record as a CEO, indicating that his on the job indiscretions have had no negative impact on shareholder return since he became CEO in 2003.

Take a look at the share price and you’d tend to agree that 300% plus growth between 2003 and 2010 compared with just 50% growth of the ASX over the same period is nothing to sneeze at. (Click the image for a bigger picture)

DJ vs ASX 2003 - 2010

Yeah, ok, 300% growth might be good enough for some people. And sure, perhaps Mark’s “innapropriate” actions had no limiting aspect to his capacity as a CEO. But all I’m saying is whatever the CEO of the Reject Shop is doing, keep on doing it. The Reject Shop has raised the stakes with 799% shareprice growth over the same period that DJ’s experienced 300%+.